Joseph Cornell was born in 1903 in Nyack, New York. At the age of 14 his father died, and he moved, with his mother and three siblings, to the Queens section of New York City. Despite his relatively sheltered life, living as an adult with his mother and brother, his art was contemporary and sophisticated. His most famous and distinctive works were boxes he created out of wood, glass, and innumerable objects and photos he collected in New York City’s antique and secondhand shops, which conveyed a poetic and magical aura…

Joseph Cornell was not a sculptor, a draftsman, or a painter. This internationally renowned modern artist never had professional training. He was first and foremost a collector. He loved to scour old book shops and secondhand stores of new York looking for souvenirs, theatrical memorabilia, old prints and photographs, music scores, and French literature..